1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of sporting equipment, more particularly to the field of golf equipment, and still more particularly to the field of golf clubs.
2. Background Discussion
The game or sport of golf is extremely popular in many parts of the world. To many players, golf is not so much a sport as an obsession and a significant personal challenge. Many players choose to live on or near a golf course and plan their vacations around golf.
The popularity of golf is further evidenced by the great variety of golf clubs and related golf equipment, such as golf shoes and other articles of golf clothes, sold in golf course pro shops and golf equipment stores. Golf clubs are of course the most important of all the golf equipment and are very susceptible to individual taste, which accounts for the great variety of clubs available and the constant introduction of “new and improved” golf clubs.
As is generally known, a full set of golf clubs constitute about three “woods” having relatively massive club heads (which may now be constructed from a metal, such as titanium) with different face angles, and which ate usually used for teeing off. In addition to the several “woods”, a golf club set includes a number, typically at least about six, “irons” having different face angles and used for fairway shots and to get out of sand traps. At least in the past, “irons” were given quaint names, associated with different face angles and club numbers. For example, a relatively small angle 3 “iron” has been named a “mashie iron,” a slightly more angled 4 “iron” has been named a “jigger,” a more angled 6 “iron” has been named a “mashie niblick” and a still more angled 7 “iron” has been named a “niblick.” The last member of a golf club set is the “putter” is used on the greens to “putt” the ball into the cup.
In any event, a full set of golf clubs is not only expensive, and very often quite expensive, but is heavy, thus often requiring a ridable, electric powered golf cart or at least a hand pushed or pulled golf cart. For travelers or vacationers, the lugging about of a golf bag holding a full set of golf clubs, especially through crowded airline terminals with their security check points, is an unpleasant and tiring chore.
In an apparent attempt to solve such problems, multi-purpose golf club “irons” have been developed and marketed. These multi-purpose “irons,” (exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 6,348,009, issued Feb. 19, 2002 to Louis Dischler; U.S. Pat. No. 6,206,788, issued Mar. 27, 2001 to Leo M. Krenzler; U.S. Pat. No. 5,538,245, issued Jul. 23, 1996 to Donald D. Moore; U.S. Pat. No. 5,113,533, issued Jul. 28, 1992 to Steven M. Divnick; U.S. Pat. No. 3,601,399, issued Aug. 24, 1971 to Martyn L. Ageos et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,878,866, issued Nov. 7, 1989 to Rukoro Hosoda; U.S. Pat. No. 2,882,053, issued Apr. 14, 1959 to M. Lorthiois; U.S. Pat. No. 2,777,694, issued Jan. 15, 1957 to C. V. Winter; U.S. Pat. No. 2,571,970, issued Oct. 16, 1951 to J. Verderber; U.S. Pat. No. 2,305,270, issued Dec. 15, 1942 to J. L. Nilson; U.S. Pat. No. 1,219,417, issued Mar. 13, 1917 to L. H. Voties; U.S. Pat. No. 670,522, issued Mar. 26, 2001 to E. F. Thompson) disclose a multi-purpose club head that is pivotally attached to a club hosel for incremental pivoting through angular positions corresponding to loft angles of individual golf clubs in a conventional set of “irons.” Selected club head angles are set by gear or other detent mechanisms and are typically locked in selected loft angle positions by manually operated screws. These loft angle setting and locking mechanisms can be expected to become difficult to operate as the multi-purpose club head becomes dirty and possibly rusty in ordinary use on golf courses.
Although the above-cited patents of Krenzler, Agens, Winter, Lorthiois and Moore provide club number markings at loft angle settings corresponding to the marked club numbers others do not and proper loft angle settings must be guessed at.
Although such multi-purpose clubs appear to offer some advantages over sets of “irons” in terms of cost and convenience, there are disadvantages to having a single multi-purpose club head settable at different loft angles. For example, golf ball striking surfaces of sets of “irons” vary from club to club, with higher numbered clubs with greater loft angles typically have larger-area club faces. In addition, shaft lengths of different numbered “irons” typically have different lengths, with higher numbered “irons” usually having shafts of decreasing length since the clubs are used for different purposes and are held differently by golfers. Thus, the single shaft length provided by the disclosed multi-purpose clubs is a distinct disadvantage. Still further, different club heads in a set of “irons” may vary slightly in weight, as opposed to the single club head in a multi-purpose “iron.”
The end result is that each club in a set of “irons” will typically have at least a slightly different “feel” to which a golfer becomes used and is comfortable with. Consequently, multi-purpose golf clubs of the disclosed type have not gained wide acceptance by golfers, many of whom also prefer the status of having complete sets of expensive “irons.”
In a less ambitious manner the U.S. Pat. No. 6,695,708, issued Feb. 24, 2004 to Dale P. Fisher and Publication No. U.S. 2002/0198060, (also Dale P. Fisher) published Dec. 26, 2002 disclose a triple-purpose golf club having a triangular club head with three different ball striking surfaces and a single, vertically mounted shaft. The present inventor considers such three-faced golf clubs to be very awkward to use and very impractical.
On the other hand, Publication No. U.S. 2003/0060301, (Yung-Ho Hsu) published Mar. 27, 2003 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,584,769, issued Dec. 17, 1996 to Donald C. Sundin; U.S. Pat. No. 5,458,335, issued Oct. 17, 1995 to Noriyasu Hattori; and Des. 346,191, issued Apr. 19, 1994 to Edward M. Bryant disclose a double sided golf club head with a putting face and a chipping face. Such disclosed golf clubs are intended to augment conventional sets of “irons” and are useful when the golf ball lies relatively close to a green-the chipping side of the club head first being used to chip the ball onto the green and the putting side then being used to putt the ball to and into the cup. In this regard a golfer typically otherwise carries both a chipping iron and a putter in closely approaching a green. After the ball is chipped onto the green, the chipping iron is typically dropped and the hole finished with the putter. This frequently results in the chipping iron being forgotten and sometimes lost.
Except for the above-cited published application to Hsu, the above-cited publication and patents disclose a club shaft that is rigidly mounted to a double-faced club head, the Sundin and Hattori patents disclosing a vertically mounted shaft which is disadvantageous for chipping use of the club and the Bryant design patent disclosing a fixed angle shaft which would be disadvantageous for use of the club for both chipping and putting.
The Hsu patent discloses a club shaft that is pivotally attached to the double-faced club head so that the shaft angle can be selectively adjusted as to angle by the golfer according to which club head face is to be used. However, no mechanism is provided for assuring that the same shaft angle is set each time a particular club head face is selected for use, and the set shaft angle is maintained only by friction between the shaft and club head. Thus, in time, it is likely that the frictional attachment between the shaft and club head will become worn to an extent that a set shaft angle cannot be maintained and ball chipping and putting will become erratic.
For these and other reasons, a principle objective of the present invention is to provide a dual-purpose golf club with a club head having opposing chipping and putting faces and having a fixed angle shaft that is reversible relative to the club head.